2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

The motivation for this project was to present students with a real-world experimental learning opportunity that would leverage their engineering skills while challenging them to account for the challenges present when working in the international development domain. The problem that was presented to students was the lack of access to a safe and reliable source of water in a rural Tanzanian village. The overarching objective of this initiative is to implement a water supply and distribution system while increasing community partners capacity to aid in the implementation and ensure the sustainability of this system.

The rainwater harvesting initiative was conducted from August 2015 to May-2019. During this phase there was an emphasis on the process of introducing technology innovation while respecting indigenous knowledge and practices. Innovations to the system were phased in order to establish trust with community partners and local contractors in addition to allowing students the ability to learn about local construction and cultural practices. Innovations introduced that included construction techniques, resource management and project management.

From 2017 to 2019 three rainwater harvesting systems were installed, that provide approximately 350,000 liters of potable water for the community. Due to the innovations implemented and capacity developed. The overall cost of the storage tank was reduced by 10% while increasing the storage volume by 95%. The community involvement increased each year. Culminating in a community contribution of over 10% of total construction cost by the third year.

An emphasis on establishing relationships and capacity building in a phased approach resulted in greater community ownership demonstrated by their increased contribution, advancement in construction techniques and management of local artisan that is sustainable and will positively impact future phases of the project.